Excuse me while I call home and turn on the lights …
atdt: I think it’s interesting how readily we forget how much technology has changed our world in the last thirty years. I try to put myself in the mindset of when I had a big rack of cassette tapes, and think of what I would have thought about this tiny shuffle with many hours of songs there at the press of a button.
Lady Jvar: *grin* it’s so true
atdt: Or remembering what it was like when only swank businessmen had cellphones, and they were tethered to the car and brick-like, in weight and volume. Payphones were everywhere. Now payphones are dead because 80% of the U.S. population has a cellphone.
Lady Jvar: I still have the mount for my cellphone of 8 years ago in the Amigo.
atdt: I racked up phone bills of hundreds of dollars calling a girl less than 60 miles away, and now I can call california at any time of day (as long as it’s verizon) and talk as longa s I want.
Lady Jvar: Oh…and what about IP phones! With my Vonage, I don’t even have to worry if the call isn’t Verizon!
atdt: And T-mobile is coming out with a phone that hops from cell to wi-fi and back again.
atdt: It’s the subtle things that are surprising – big changes like artificial limbs that respond to nerve impulses are one thing, but the subtle ways our lives have changed without our notice are the most fascinating.
atdt: maybe I’ll post this conversation and see what people say. :)
2 words
“On Demand”
Re: 2 words
*nod* I don’t have TiVo, myself, or even digital cable, but there are many people I know who say they would never go back.
I resisted cell phones intensely when they first came out. I just hated the very idea of them. Then I got one, and for quite a while it was just a safety thing – I need it with the kind of cars I drive. Now I remember what it was like when you couldn’t call people from anywhere, but it seems so darn inconvenient!
I still kind of hate them tho. I hate that no one really considers it rude to just talk on the phone and ignore the people you’re with, but it irritates me to no end. And a big part of the reason I never do that myself is privacy – I don’t like feeling like everyone is listening to my conversation. They’re this huge part of our lives, but etiquette rules haven’t caught up to them.
On the other hand, I have no clue how people did things before the internet. How did people look for jobs? Quickly obtain information? Keep in touch? Aaah, it boggles the mind!
Not everyone behaves that way – you live in a young city full of young kids, and they deal with it differently than we do.
In many circumstances, I try to abide by a Rule of Immediacy. In other words, I try not to pay attention to email when I’m on the phone, or the phone when I’m in person. I make exceptions for important subjects or with certain people… and I’ve been known to pull out my phone on the elevator and pretend to text because I don’t want to talk to anyone in there. :D
You’ve seen me frustrated with the secretary here in the office who has ultra-personal calls on her land line here – if I’m paying a bill or having a private conversation, I leave my desk and go somewhere private.
I also thought cellphones were an annoying waste. Then I got a pager, and man that was useful. The cellphone was probably less than a year or two after that, at which point I gave my best friend my pager… and sent him down that same road.
These sorts of thoughts come up for me *all the time* in context of writerly things. :)
Me too, particularly this line: “I try to put myself in the mindset of when I had a big rack”
:D
I think the blurring between private time and public time that cell phones and wireless gadgets can cause may prove to have some hidden psychological pitfalls.Some days I would give anything for cells phones to not exist, and for people to still be comfortable putting effort into things and being patient. I remember when there was no such thing as voicemail, so that when someone was out of town you actually had to *wait* for them to get home before you got a callback. I think that there is a lot of value in all of this instant communication, but it comes with the pitfall that you can never really get away from work, and on the familial level it is really hard to have a face to face with a tech junkie – especially a teen. I saw a survey the other day (I lost the link or I’d post it) that 87% of people got phone calls & emails from their job while they were on vacation so that they ended up working for part of it. That is wild, and only one example of what I think could be damaging in the long run.
I think that’s fair. I’ve learned the benefit of not answering the phone once in awhile – it’s nothing personal, but some times I am not interested or able to answer the phone.
Fortunately, I’ve not had anyone give me a hard time for that – it seems that most people still respect the idea that you won’t answer the phone at every moment.
‘cept work. :)
I find the opposite. I rarely find someone who doesn’t give me shit for not checking lj, email, or – gasp- answering the phone. I think my boss has come to accept that I turn the work cell off at a reasonable hour after I get home (enough that he asked me very nicely to leave it on while he is out of town this week) but I have to be v.e.r.y. specific about “When I leave town, I will not be available via phone from this date to this date or this time to this time.” My impending honeymoon is already causing him a nervous breakdown.
I know I am realying heavily on my own xp – but I see this a lot in other people around me.
Sometimes it’s better to hold on…
I remember when they removed the pay phone at work – we still get people (mostly undesirable) who insist that I let them use a non-existant payphone or let them behind the desk to use the main line (NOT HAPPENING).
But yeah, AT&T and similar rounded up their “unprofitable” pay phones last winter and ripped them out. One wonders how much, with enough demand for them that here they’re easily missing out on $20/day, the phone company required to consider the pay phone “profitable”.
I’m very update resistant I’ve noticed (at least when the “update” does not significantly improve my quality of life).
I have moments like this all the time at work, where it is often highly evident that we live in a very, very different world than the one 30, 20, 10 or even 5 years ago.
Or as I like to say:
“I LIVE IN THE FUTURE!”